UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Palestinian People

“..he did not deny writing it later – and claimed the moderate rabbis “are clerks, who don’t want to rock the boat, who say ‘this isn’t the halacha [law], precisely,’ […] rabbis, in short, whose bread and water is political correctness […] One wonders whether they will leave the concentrating of ‘Amalekites in death camps to others, or will they rule that the wiping out of ‘Amalek is no longer relevant. Time will tell.”

A Palestinian genocide is on the acceptable menu in Israeli thought. Just make sure you use the correct code-words, right? Don’t embarrass the hasbara people.”

Undeniably, the views of Ariel, Bennett and Caspit are not angry statements uttered in a moment of rage. They are all reflections of real policies that have been carried out for over 70 years. Indeed, killing, raping and imprisoning for life are features that have accompanied the state of Israel since the very beginning.

This violent legacy continues to define Israel to this day, through the use of what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes as “incremental genocide”.

Throughout this long legacy, little has changed except for names and titles. The Zionist militias that orchestrated the genocide of the Palestinians prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948 merged together to form the Israeli army; and the leaders of these groups became Israel’s leaders.

“Bennett’s belligerence in openly threatening genocidal war crimes against Lebanon and its people, is nothing new for Israel, even if it did ratchet-up the rhetoric.

In 2008, Israel’s then head of the Northern Command, Gadi Eizenkot — he is now chief of staff — proclaimed the “Dahya Doctrine” in which entire villages were threatened with destruction. “In every village from which Israel is fired on… We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases… This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.”

… Moreover, in threatening to send Lebanon “back to the Middle Ages” the genocidal intent is clear. It is reminiscent of previous Israeli threats to conduct war against the entire Palestinian civilian population, including women and children…

Despite its alleged liberal credentials, Ha’aretz seems to have little problem with Bennett’s genocidal threats. Its headline writers appear to encourage him by summarising his interview with his promise to “Hit Civilians Where It Hurts”

“More than 40 per cent of Europeans believe that Israel carries out genocide against Palestinians, Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett said a recent report showed. During the Sunday meeting of the Israeli government, Bennett blamed Europe for the result of the report, saying that Europe is becoming anti-Semitic and the EU leaders are not taking action to stop this… The report pointed out that the BDS movement had been very successful in Europe and other parts of the world despite Israeli efforts to tackle it.”

The Israeli economic minister said: “The only difference between us and Hamas in Gaza is that they are deliberately sending their women and children to stand next to missile launchers in order for them to get killed, and then they cry to the world that they are being killed. This is cynical and cowardly. Israel has all the right to defend itself… They started this, they are continuing this, this can all go away the moment they disarm themselves and stop shooting us. Hamas is placing missiles in homes, in living rooms, in schools, in children’s rooms, this is their modus operandi… If Hamas was shooting missiles at your home, from within a school, what would you do? Would you just wait for those missiles to kill you? We fight back. Sometimes yes in wars there is collateral damage, but I’m not going to ask forgiveness for defending my four children that had rockets shot at home this very morning. What Hamas is doing is effectively self-genocide.”